Joseph's inspiration

Joseph made his family proud when he earned a Monash Achieving Potential Scholarship.

For Joseph’s parents, education means good career prospects and the pathway to a more comfortable life. For Joseph, an Achieving Potential Scholarship provided by the Monash alumni and donor community helped him access an immersive educational experience at university, and a pathway to a whole new world.

While studying, Joseph worked with the Access Monash team, mentoring students from high schools where very few students went on to tertiary education because they lacked the financial means to do so.

“Many were from refugee backgrounds,” Joseph explains, “and many would be the first in their family to go to university if they pursued a tertiary education.”

Joseph with his parents at his graduation ceremony.

Joseph says his work at the Alumni Outreach Centre, where students call Monash alumni to encourage them to donate to Achieving Potential Scholarships, was “one of, if not the highlight of my time at Monash.” “Six months out of high school, and all of a sudden, I was speaking to people with the most extraordinary careers and pearls of wisdom to share with me,” he says.

The experience put him on track to a life in the public service sector, and he now has a role in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Canberra. Joseph decided he wanted to work where he could positively impact as many people as possible.

“For better or worse , nothing impacts us more than the decisions of the government. I hope to play a small role in making sure these decisions are the right ones.” Joseph says the generous support for scholarships helped launch him on a path to change things for good, “for the benefit of all Australians.”